Every human being has a right to make a decent living and to support his/her family with dignity and honour. The Palestinians are no exception. The average Palestinian man in the street wants peace with Israel, which in turn will create a healthy environment which will ultimately result in peace and prosperity in the region.

Our fight is not with the average Palestinian man or woman. Our fight is with the murderous terrorists of the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad who use the plight of their people as an excuse to commit murder against innocent men, women and children.

The restrictions and curfews that Israel imposes on the Palestinians are imposed as a direct result of the suicide bombings that are carried out against us. We have no wish to either starve the Palestinians or to prevent them from going out to earn a living and if anyone has any question about our eagerness to co-exist with them and our willingness to ease the restrictions imposed on them (by their own actions), please read this story:

Every morning, thousands of Palestinians come to the checkpoint at the Israel/Gaza border requesting permits to work in Israel. The soldiers give them a thorough outer body check in order to make sure that no one is carrying any concealed weapons. If the man is clean then he gets thru.

Yesterday morning, a 22 year old Palestinian mother of 2 young children arrived at the checkpoint looking for work. She went thru the metal detector and set it off. The soldier stopped her and prevented her from going any further without surrendering to a body check. The woman then started crying and pleading with the soldier to let her pass - citing a metal pin in her leg as the reason the metal detector went off. The soldier stood there facing a moral dilemma - should he follow orders and prevent her from entering or should he follow his heart and let her thru in order for her to find work to support her family.

After a few minutes, he called his superior and asked what to do. The superior saw the crying woman, pleading for a chance to work, and felt sorry for her. He let her through and went in a room with her to perform a body check (which of course would have been done by a FEMALE border guardsperson).

This decision cost him his life..........

As soon as they got into this room, the woman pressed the button of the explosive device she had been wearing - blowing herself up and murdering the superior, 2 other soldiers and one civillian.

It turns out that this 22 year old married mother of two was a Hamas operative recruited by the terrorists as a human bomb - with the encouragement of her husband.
The knew that because of the higher level of security in the Israeli cities they wouldn't be able to carry out conventional attacks in the usual manner, so they recruited this young woman because they knew that the Israeli authorities would be more lenient towards women.

The Hamas leadership praised the action of this 22 year old "martyr" who had given up her life for the cause.....never mind that she was the mother of two young children who are now orphans - and who will probably growing up with the same blind hatred that her mother had for all Israelis.

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So I ask you......what are we supposed to do in the face of these relentless attacks on our people? Are we to turn a blind eye to the next woman who is in need of medical attention or the father who is carrying his sick son in his arms?......What can we do?????

I'm sure you've all heard about the contraversy(sp?) surrounding Israel's construction of a security fence in the territories. This fence is for the sole purpose of keeping the terrorists from freely entering the country to carry out attacks against us. The fence is NOT to choke the Palestinian people or to keep the decent folks from trying to make a living......the fence is for our protection and for no other reason.

I realize this was a bit of a ramble but I just wanted you to see the impossible situation that we sometimes face so you don't judge us strictly according to what you see in the news.